Coffee Break: Comcast rate hike to average 1.4 percent

Citing increasing programming costs and advances in technology, officials with Comcast confirmed that subscribers will notice an increase on their upcoming statements.

"We continue to invest in next-generation technology and equipment to support new product features, more programming choices and improvements to customer services," said Trevor Yant, vice president and general manager of Comcast of Memphis. "These investments make it possible to deliver continued innovations such as more high-definition programming and Video On-Demand, converged services, multiplatform content and increased Internet speeds that consumers demand.

"As a result of these investments, the increased cost of doing business and rising programming costs, the average customer bill nationally will increase by approximately 1.4 percent."

The increase went into effect Jan. 1.

Deal closed for C&I Bank

Visible School, a music and worship arts college, has closed on a contract to buy the former C&I Bank Building at 200 Madison in Downtown Memphis.

The school bought the building from the Greater Memphis Chamber for just over $1 million.

Visible School started a fund-raising campaign last spring to buy the building, which was designed by architect Francis Gassner and built in 1974. The $525,000 it raised was matched by an anonymous donor.

The school is starting renovations this month and plans to be in the building during the 2010-11 school year.

"We're very excited that we've met this incredible goal to purchase a new home for Visible School," said Ken Steorts, founder and president.

Mended Hearts meetings move

Baptist Memorial Hospital-DeSoto is now hosting the American Heart Association's Mended Hearts patient support group.

The sessions are designed to allow heart patients to share their stories and information.

The first meeting is scheduled for Monday, beginning at 6 p.m. and lasting an hour. The group will continue to meet the second Monday of each month.

Patients will also get information on lifestyle choices and tips for medication adherence and depression.

For details, call Carolyn Melton at (662) 772-3000.

Funds for health tech study

Tennessee has received $2.7 million in federal matching funds to help build its health information technology infrastructure.

The money will help set up a program created by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to give businesses incentives to start using electronic health records.

The funds will first be used to conduct a study of Tennessee's current health information infrastructure. The state will also devise a State Medicaid HIT Plan, which will define Tennessee's vision for long-term HIT use.